Municipal Archives

​Love Field Photographs and Files, 1918-1993

​Collection 2001-003

Overview

Repository
Office of the City Secretary
Dallas Municipal Archives
1500 Marilla Street, 5D South
Dallas, Texas 75201
CreatorCity of Dallas Department of Aviation
TitleLove Field Photographs and Files
Dates1918-1993
Quantity4 linear feet
AbstractPhotographs, newspaper clippings, and printed materials documenting the history of Love Field.
Identification2001-003
LanguageRecords are in English
​

Scope and Content

Photograph album, loose photographic prints, slide transparencies, photographic negatives, printed materials, newspaper clippings, and videotape documenting the history of Love Field airport.

Love Field is owned and operated by the City of Dallas Department of Aviation.  It is named for Lieutenant Moss L. Love, who was killed during a training flight at San Diego, California, on September 4, 1913.  The airfield was developed by private business entities and the first flights began in January 1917.  On October 19, 1917, Love Field was leased to the United States Army as an air training base.  After World War I, the airfield was again used for commercial business. In 1927, the City purchased 167 acres of the field and passenger service began.  Major additions to the land were acquired in 1931 (from the development Love Field Acres) and 1941.  The airport presently rests on 1,300 acres of land and serves eight million passengers a year.  Its airport code is DAL.

Love Field became an army field again in 1942 and served during World War II as headquarters for the United States Air Transport Command (the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces).  The facilities were greatly expanded by the Army Air Corps before transferring back to the City of Dallas.  By 1964, Love Field was the largest air terminal in the southwest. 

Several airlines served Love Field, including Air Central, American Airlines, American Freighter, Braniff International Airways, Capital Airlines, Central Airlines, Eastern Air Lines, Legend Airlines, Ozark Air Lines, Saturn Airways, SeaPort Airlines, Slick Airways, Southern Air Transport, Trans-Texas Airways, and United Airlines.

Growth of air traffic in Texas led to the establishment of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 1974 and the sudden reversal of Love Field's prominence.  By the next year, Love Field had lost all its carriers except Southwest Airlines to the new facility.  

Braniff International was once Love Field's largest carrier. It started flying there in the early 1930s, but it relocated most of its flights to DFW when that airport opened in January 1974.  Braniff kept flying from Love Field until its collapse in May 1982.

In 1979, when the Civil Aeronautics Board ordered all carriers to use the new airport, Southwest, an intrastate carrier, refused to do so and won a lawsuit to continue using Love Field.  Further restrictions on flights included the Shelby and Wright Amendments, in which Federal law prohibited Southwest Airlines from providing direct flights between Love Field and any point beyond Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Alabama. 

The collection includes a hand-mounted photographic album documenting the “Flyin’ Frolic,” an air show that took place at Love Field in November 1918, prior to the City of Dallas’ purchase of the airfield in 1923.  The album, presumably photographed and assembled by Ray Huffines, U.S. Army Aerial Photo Section No. 38, documents the buildings of Love Field, air shows and aircraft activities, and daily life for soldiers at the airfield.  The album was partially dismantled and loose prints are in a separate folder.  A separate series of loose photographic prints, in both black-and-white and color, includes a number of subjects relating to aircraft, structures, and daily activities at the airport from the 1920s to the 1980s, and special events taking place at Love Field, such as a historical reenactment of Charles Lindbergh’s flight and visits to Dallas by several United State Presidents on Air Force One.  Expansion, renovation, and construction of the airport facility during the 1970s and 1980s is also documented.  There is also a set of slides about the history of Love Field, as well as a ¾” Beta-format videotape on Love Field titled “Aviation - Then & Now” produced for broadcast on local Dallas cable access channels.

Paper materials consist of 
• printed promotional materials regarding the airport
• its operations and history from 1960 and 1987 (including Dallas Love Field 70th Anniversary items)
• a photocopy of a 1932 ordinance on airport operations
• studies and papers about Dallas Love Field, 1950-1986
• biographical information on Lt. Moss Lee Love
• newspaper and magazine clippings on Love Field, 1929-1993
• airport postcards

Organization

The collection is composed of two major series, visual materials and paper-based materials. The photographs series are arranged by subject matter and by format, and the paper materials by subject matter.

Access

The hand-mounted photographic album documenting the "Flyin' Frolic" materials are fragile, and access to them is restricted.  The images are all available for viewing on the Portal to Texas History.  

Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use by any and all other current or future methods or procedures must be obtained in writing from the Dallas Municipal Archives.  All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.

Citation

Love Field Photographs and Files, 1918-1993 (Box <x>, Folder <y>), Dallas Municipal Archives

Related Materials


Index Terms

Aeronautics -- Texas -- Dallas -- History
Airports -- Texas -- Dallas Metropolitan Area -- History
Dallas -- Texas -- History
Dallas Love Field
Dallas Love Field -- History -- Pictorial works

Container List

BoxFolderTitle, Date
  Visual materials
11"Flyin' Frolic, Love Field, Tex. November 12-13, 1918" [photographic album]
 2"Flyin' Frolic, Love Field, Tex. November 12-13, 1918" [photographic album]
 3"Flyin' Frolic, Love Field, Tex. November 12-13, 1918" [photographic album]
 4"Flyin' Frolic, Love Field, Tex. November 12-13, 1918" [photographic album]
21Loose prints from Flyin' Frolic album
 2Terminal building exteriors, undated
 3Terminal building interiors, undated
 4Airlines and air services at Love Field, undated
 5Love Field scenes and day-to-day activities, undated
 6Fire Station Number 21 at Love Field, undated
 7Construction, renovation, and expansion projects, circa 1980-1990
 8Flooding at construction site, May 2, 1990
 9Signage, undated
 10Air Force One at Love Field, undated
 11Charles Lindbergh flight reenactment and reception, September 26, 1977
 12Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Michael Dukakis, United States Presidents and presidential candidates at Love Field, December 1988 
 13Modernization concept illustrations-skybridge
 14Modernization concept illustrations-baggage claim wing interior (carousels), undated
 15Modernization concept illustrations-parking garage, undated
 16Aerial view of Love Field, 1987
 17Love Field administrators D. Bruce, J. Shelton, F. Breedlove, undated
 18Unidentified prints [including Polaroid prints], undated
31"70 Years of Love" presentation slides, undated
 2Air Force One at Love Field slides; unidentified bomber towing plane slides; Muse Air jetliner; views of Dallas with terminal in foreground, undated
 3Aerial views and diagrams of Love Field slides, undated
 4Love Field terminal building interiors and exteriors and activities slides, undated
 5Baggage claim area contact sheets, 1984
 6Air Force One at Love Field, circa 1988, black & white and color 35mm negatives
 7Terminal expansion construction, 1990, black & white, 35mm negatives
 8Flood, May 2, 1990, black & white, 35mm negatives
 9Modernization concept illustrations and copy negatives, black and white & color, 4x5 and 120mm, undated
 10"Aviation-Then and Now," undated ¾" Beta videocassette, undated
  Paper materials
41Promotional printed material on Dallas Love Field, 1960, 1987
 2City of Dallas ordinance on Dallas Love Field operations, 1932
 3Preliminary Survey of Dallas Love Field Airport Terminal Building and Area, 1948, 1949 and 1950
 4Fritz-Alan Korth, A Tale of Two Cities [senior thesis, Princeton University, 1961]
 5Biographical data on Lieutenant Moss Lee Love [photocopies], undated
 6Texas Research League, "Up in the Air: the State's Role in Aviation," November 1986
 7Postcards of Dallas Love Field, 1970 and undated
 8Newspaper and magazine clippings regarding Love Field and Wright Amendment, 1923-1945, 1992-1993
  Collection additions
51Skating rink at Love Field, 1976; terminal interiors, 1972-1973; Love Field copy images, color slides, undated
 2Love Field exteriors and interiors, airline promotional images, black and white photographic prints, 1957-1972
 3Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases, 1940-1960
 4Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases, 1961
 5Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1962-1964
 6Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1965-1966
 7Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1965-1966
61Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1965-1966
 2Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1967-1969
  3Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1970
​​4Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1970
 5Newspaper and magazine clippings, publication and press releases 1974-1975, 1991, and undated